A Story behind every Stitch

Our Heritage

Our founder Mrs Maura Hughes began weaving the story of Aran Woollen Mills in 1965. Mrs Hughes established the business to follow her passion for Irish craft, heritage and to provide employment locally in the West of Ireland.

Our home is the beautiful town of Westport, with a proud textile and knitting industry that stretches back to the 18th century. Generations of craftspeople have been inspired by the dramatic landscape that surrounds us - the majestic Croagh Patrick Mountain overlooking Clew Bay, and of course the wild Atlantic Ocean, all an indelible source of inspiration for our designs.

The 13 Hughes children spent much of their summers living and working on the Aran Islands selling sweaters and immersing themselves in Island life. The passion for heritage and craft has been ingrained in the family from an early age and this legacy lives on today within the family business.

The infinite power of the ocean has transcended the shores of Aran and Westport into our branding and design details, and each of our stitches are steeped in symbolism. Whether it’s the cable stitch for good luck or the honeycomb stitch - a reward for hard work. Aran knitwear binds us to the land, customs, craft and heritage. By choosing Aran, our customers are sharing an important piece of Irish history with the world.

For three generations since that modest first step, our family business has grown to become a trusted Aran knitwear manufacturer. From Westport to the world, we are proud to see our designs and products worn internationally ensuring that our Irish heritage lives on.

Design & Manufacturing

At Aran Woollen Mills we have been offering expertise in knitwear design and manufacturing to our trade customers since 1965. Our collection offers over 300 styles covering clothing, accessories and homeware. Our Design and Production teams are dedicated to bringing products to life in a timely fashion. We design and develop beautiful, yet commercial products for domestic and international trade customers using the highest quality natural yarns.

We pride ourselves on choosing 100% natural wool yarns. These include 100% Merino & Worsted wools not to mention our extraordinary Supersoft Merino wool offering a soft and luxurious finish. Our collection also includes beautifully crafted handknit garments and accessories in 100% Merino yarn. Garments knitted in beautiful 100% wool nepped yarns, 100% Shetland lined garments and accessories all to complement the conscious wardrobe and to fit a customer’s lifestyle. We take great pride in the quality and finish of our products. Each of our products passes through many pairs of hands from yarn cone to design and manufacturing to shipping. We ensure every consideration is taken for the quality of the process, the finish of each product and the efficient delivery of our products to our customers.

Introducing our Image Library

In response to changing times and customer demand, we are delighted to announce the introduction of our image library. The demand for product imagery to support online sales of our products has increased significantly and the team at Aran Woollen Mills have built an extensive library of images to support our customers who sell Aran Woollen Mills products online.

Our image Library will be updated with new imagery and assets regularly. We encourage you, our customers, to sign up to use this image library and receive email communication in order to keep up to date with what is happening at Aran Woollen Mills.

To sign up to our emails and our image library, please contact awmmarketing@aranwoollenmills.com where a member of our Marketing team will be able to assist you. Alternatively, please visit our website for further information.